The war started slowly, which William was somewhat disappointed with. The other lords on his side took longer than him to raise their armies, so it was necessary… but it also gave the northern lords time to do so as well. Unfortunately, William didn’t think he could take on half-prepared northern lords all by himself. He might have been able to push further into their territory on his own, but then he would have found himself besieged from all sides.

The only benefit was that his propaganda had more time to spread. This included much of the same information as earlier, but also that Lord Heinrich had come to his territory to try to kill him in the night. Even though it was almost completely true, it was still propaganda. He just hoped it helped.

-----

William sat staring at an army, the hot summer sun beating down on him. He could have sat protected in a tent, but he figured he deserved it for putting his soldiers through it. Actually, he was still better off than them since he wasn’t wearing heavy armor.

His army sat on one edge of a narrow winding valley, the opposing army on the other. At the bottom of the valley was a stream. Though the sides of the valley were gentle slopes, neither side wanted to move to attack the other. Attacking uphill was a terrible idea. While William thought he could win anyway, it wouldn’t bring about the solution he wanted. Too many men would die, his and the enemy’s. Jordan wouldn’t forgive him if he did something that stupid anyway. There were better options- including just leaving. They didn’t have to fight here.

That said, he needed to go through this territory. It led to the first real goal of the war, and even if they went around through another territory they would have to worry about being attacked from behind or having their supply lines cut off.

William had something to try before giving up here, though he wasn’t sure if it would work. On the other hand, he couldn’t see any chance of it backfiring if he tried it.

He moved forward to the edge of the valley. There was still a fifth of a mile or so between him and the enemy army, but William’s voice could reach that far- with the help of some boosting from ki. “Some of you may have heard that I, Lord Josef Rutten, am not a fan of bloodshed. Mostly, however, you will have been told that I am some sort of horrible monster. They will say I defied the council’s orders and other rubbish, when their orders were designed to make sure as much gevai blood as possible was shed in pointless wars. With so many wars between humans and gevai, you might wonder why so many of the northern lords have survived for so long… and never participated in the wars themselves. It is simply because that way they can continue to amass personal power through the deaths of their own people.” William knew they wouldn’t suspect it was quite as literal as he meant it, but it didn’t matter.

William continued his speech, though he could see the enemy lord shifting uncomfortably. “Of course, your own lord has only ruled for a few gross years. He is not a founder of this ages old conspiracy, merely a pawn of it.” William never paused long enough to give opponent a chance to retort. “Lord Herrera might just be an unknowing pawn, in which case I offer a simple deal. Just return to your homes and let us pass through your territory. I swear we will not take a single step inside your cities… except to spend coin if you would let us. Not a single person has to die here this day.”

Once William finished his speech, he waited. Lored Herrera started a response of his own, though William thought he had to put more effort for his voice to carry far enough. “Why should we listen to the words of one who killed his superior commander in a sneak attack? If you care so much about gevai lives, you would surrender yourself so that your men might live.”

William laughed, “Is it a sneak attack when he attempts to poison me for finding a way to not get all of my men killed in a suicide mission? At least some of you should have heard about my successes in the war up until that point. He was one of those who didn’t like that I, a new lord, was prospering.” Lord Herrera started to speak, but William raised his voice to overpower him. “As for caring about gevai lives, you should know that I was among those who negotiated the end of the war with the humans and caused them to withdraw from our territories. Where were you, Lord Herrera? Hiding? Preparing ‘reinforcements’ weeks of travel away from any combat? What qualifies you to be a lord?”

“I-I have proven my strength and leadership many times! You have no right to judge me!”

“Leadership? Is that what you call it when you have people starving in your territory even though you eat wyvern steaks at every meal?” William thanked the information that had been gathered for him… and the fact that many lords were terrible managers of their territory. “Your strength… is that what you call it when half of the young men with potential mysteriously die when out on their first ‘command’ hunting magical beasts? If you were strong, you could face them even if they were allowed to grow… or you could fight me.”

“You… have no idea what goes into running a territory! You think your little experience and luck accounts for anything? You think you have any strength of your own just because you defeated a few young lords?”

“Won’t we know if we fight?” William was grinning, not that they could easily see that from the distance they were at, “In that case, I challenge you to a duel to the death. Pick any location around here,” William swept his arm across the entire valley, “Our armies will watch from a distance to make sure there’s no interference. If I lose, you may do what you like with my men, but when you lose…” William waved his hand dismissively, “Your men just get to go home. I don’t really care.”

“How could we possibly trust your men to surrender?”

William held his arms out for an exaggerated shrug, “I don’t know about you, but my men listen to orders. Besides, it’s still a victory for you. I know about the bounty your side has on me, because they can’t trust you to do anything without incentive.”

Lord Herrera ignored the casual insult at the end, “Fine. We will duel tomorrow, after we have scouted out the optimum spot for a duel.”